Unknown Warhol: The Drag Queens

The exhibition features a little known series of drag queens by Andy Warhol titled 'Ladies and Gentlemen.  These works were commissioned  by the Italian art dealer Luciano Anselminoin 1975 and first exhibited in Ferrara in Italy.  It is one of Warhol's biggest series of works but probably the least know.  

The sitters were recruited from the Gilded Brape Bar near Times Square, that was frequented by trans people and drag performers of colour.  These individuals were offered $50 an hour in exchange for their portrait.  Never introduced to Warhol by name, the sitters arrived at the Factory and had their polaroid taken.  

Among the sitters was pioneering transgender activist Marsha P. Johnson, was central to the 1969 Stonewall uprising that galvanized the modern LGBTQ rights movement.  Others include, Alphanso Panell, Broadway, Wilhelmina Ross, Iris, Easha McCleary, and Vicki Peters. 

Online only from 7 January 2020